Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 508

When I had told Dominic that I wanted to match him, that I intended to stand beside my prince charming looking like I belonged there, he had laughed and promised to wear whatever I chose. Julien had taken him at his word. He had made Dominic a suit in midnight black, cut to fit my fiancé like armor, and folded a pocket square from the very same emerald silk as my gown. We would match without trying. The guests would not understand why we looked so right together until we stood side by side and the truth caught up with them.

The engagement party was being held at the estate Dominic had bought, the one he had described to me as the place where we would live after the wedding with our children running through the halls. I had not been there yet. He had offered to show me a dozen times, and I had refused every single time, because I wanted to walk into it for the first time as his betrothed, on the night he presented me to the world. I trusted him with every arrangement. Dominic Ford did not plan a party halfway.

He had insisted I get ready here, at his new hotel, a building so fresh that it had not even opened to the public yet. A skeleton crew kept the lights on and the rooms ready, and the whole place smelled of new wood and clean glass and money. The estate sat only a short drive away, and Dominic had worried that if I dressed somewhere far from it, the ride would leave me drained before the evening even began.

"You do realize I am not brittle," I had told him when he explained this. "I will not shatter on the way to my own engagement party."

"You never can tell," he had replied, completely serious. "I am not taking chances with you. Not tonight, not ever."

I had laughed so hard my ribs ached, and he had stood there watching me, looking at me like my laughter was his favorite sound in the world.

We had not posted a single thing about the engagement. No announcement, no carefully staged photograph, nothing. Dominic had sent invitations the old way, engraved cards delivered by hand to the people who mattered, and I had sent mine to the people I loved. It was strictly by invitation, and every second of the night was going to be filmed and streamed live for the world that had spent weeks speculating about us. The party would begin at five. It was almost four now, and I was already done.

My phone buzzed on the vanity, and Dominic's name lit up the screen.

I picked it up and smiled into the speaker. "I am beginning to think you do not trust me to get dressed alone."

"Truth teller," he corrected. "The limousine will be at the hotel in thirty minutes. Sparrow and his men are already in position. They will stay with you from the moment you step out of the suite until the moment I take you from them at the estate. You are safe, Celeste. Nothing is going to touch you tonight."

I pressed the phone closer to my ear. "You told me that this morning. You told me last night. I am beginning to think you are the nervous one."

"I am terrified," he admitted. "Terrified you will see the estate and decide you have changed your mind about marrying me."

"There is not a house on this earth big enough to make me change my mind about you."